Yes (qualified), and Gore did what he needed to do to avoid bloodshed
Yes, this piece appeared on Sep 12, and it shows several scenarios
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/12/politics/12VOTE.html?pagewanted=all
It is kind of a fluffy thing. Consortium News was owned by MEDIA organizations, and it went away after 2002 when it again fell off script, They were also responsible for the polling that showed Gore should have won florida. They had never been wrong.
in 2004 media hired Mitofsky, that also showed Kerry winning in OH. Mitofsky does a lot of the polling in Mexico by the way. The study that Conyers did in 2004 appeared in full of all places in excelsior, a Mexico city paper, not the NYT. That was the last time Mitofsky was hired and after that all exit polls are suspect.
We have been seeing quite a bit of manipulation of the vote at the very least. Can it legally be called a coup? Nope, but it is technical, but it gets close enough where when historians look back at this period. this election of 2000 will have the same reputation as that of Rutherford B Hayes, and 2004 should join it.
here
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_election.html